Which one is better? My girlfriend is wholeheartedly against renting a condo and I just don't understand why. She insists that renting from an apartment complex is better because there is more support from reception and individual people renting their condos can be shady. I need informed opinions because I've found some very nice condos for decent prices and she is totally against them. Has anyone here had any problems?

If your gf is against condos then the point of which is best is academic.

The answer in my experience has been that renting from an owner of a condo has been best for me.

Who is paying?

If she is paying, she can choose.

If you are paying, you can choose.

If you are paying and she doesn't like your decision, she can choose to live somewhere else.

Easy!

So ridiculous to think that there is a difference between a condo and an apartment....

I tend to agree with your gf's point of view but I wouldn't rule out condos altogether.

Service apartments are ran as a business, and they would have sorted out the procedures/services that tenants may want. So yes, I expect service to be better. One further advantage is that if you don't like your room, it's easy to request a change to another room, subject to availability. However, in terms of furnishing, my experience is that most new condos are nicer than service apartments.

If you have a condo owner as landlord, then it's really hard to say how well he will take care of tenants.

For me, I would consider 2 aspects of the choice:

1) Contract period. I prefer monthly rental, which is easier to get from a service apartment.

2) Internet. Some service apartments may not allow you to sign up for your own ISP.

Utilities are always higher at apartments, ,marked up by the building

Utilities much more expensive in apartments (easily a difference of 1000 B/month if renting one room)

No decent internet in apartments. They will have crappy WiFi and usually will not let you install your own line. Of course no private phone line in apartments (in case you need that). Oh, same goes for cable TV, of course - you have to take what the apartment gives you, and it won't be True visions platinum package, for sure! More likely 450 channels of mostly Chinese crap.

Condos or apartments may or may not have an effective reception and building office.

Apartments are often for loso people, new condos for yuppies. Working class Thais may feel out of place in a mainly middle class condo.

Never had a problem with thai landlords, all of them were much more honest than the landlords i had in my home country, condo or apartment

The apartementos are mostly own by one owner, whole building. Maybe take better care, because have good control what happen.

I think, there is vat on the rent 7%, what you not have on condos.

A serviced apartment providing a similar quality of living as a condo would cost you 65-80% more in rental rate.

A non-serviced apartment would probably give you inferior furniture and facilities to that of a condo, but at a lower rental rate about 60-75% that of a condo.

Whichever you decide, bear in mind it is communal living. So choose the type of community you would be living with.

In Bangkok i've rented a budget ish 12000 pm service apartment , cos it was near the g/fs hse and found it to be poor, regularly changing in size ie one bed to two bed and studio ect ect to suit the market, the owners wernt concerned about the noise they made or the quality of the finish ,, v v poor sound insulation ultra ultra thin walls . personally i'de go for a newish condo,15000 / 20000 will get u somewhere reasonable better value for money imo' and designed for purpose , the 2 i've lived in have been far better and as for support, better from the owner who wants and needs the rent rather than an office waller who from my experience of front desk 2 them u are just another job on a list to get done when ever.

Go for the apartment.

Apartments in Thailand are normally owned by 1 person ( 1 person owns the whole building), the advantages of this is cheaper rents, usually free wifi and cable, no condo committee to deal with, and it is possible to negotiate with the owner for installing a separate phone line or satellite tv, my apartment has internets speeds around 18mpbs and its free.

looks like your gonna have to put some shoe leather into it and go

look at both and see what you get for your money. for my own future ref' be interested to hear what u looked at and ended up with

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Condos tend to be higher quality furnishing and facilities (gym/pool etc.) and have more floors, thai government rate electricity (3-4b/unit as opposed to 6-8b/unit in apartments). They usually want a one year lease.

You may have more chance of getting your deposit back from an apartment but then again you'll have spent all that time overpaying for electricity and getting less value for money (they're cheap but spartan, your money goes less far) so it evens out. I'd go with condos unless you need something short term.

I would like to ask a few questions, with regards to apartment lease.

 

Do tenants pay for:

- wifi

- utilities / water

- property tax

- parking slot (if applicable)

- any other costs / fees to note?

 

thank you

On 2/14/2017 at 10:05 PM, JWNY said:

I would like to ask a few questions, with regards to apartment lease.

 

Do tenants pay for:

- wifi

- utilities / water

- property tax

- parking slot (if applicable)

- any other costs / fees to note?

 

thank you

The big one to look for is electric (air conditioning!), are you billed directly from the electric company, or from the apt/owner.

I think it's 4.5 Baht directly or as high as 8 baht when paid to the landlord.

I'm currently looking to move to a place that's cheaper, in this way.

Also, water can be 50 Baht a month or 500 a month.

Where I live now I got a reduction in the rent from 17,500 a month to 15,000 a month for a 6 month contract, in the knowledge that utilities are as I described. Puts my total all-up to 20k a month.

Property tax/sinking fund is (usually) paid by the owner.

I'm looking for 8k rent a month in Jan.

Hope this helps a bit & good luck...